Many electronic devices, such as portable devices and handheld devices in the form of portable computers, personal digital assistants, media players, mobile telephones, and the like, are powered by portable power sources, such as batteries, with limited storage capacities. Typically such power sources need to be recharged or replaced when stored energy falls below a certain level.
Known techniques for prolonging battery life in such devices focus on minimizing power consumption or power conservation, such as selectively switching between a high consumption mode and a low consumption mode. In the low consumption mode, power consumption is reduced by reducing the device's functionality or performance level. For instance, various clock frequencies may be reduced; the operation of certain components, applications, or functional blocks within a component may be shut down, temporarily suspended, or run in a low power state with reduced functionality; operating voltages may be throttled; or any combination of these steps may be taken. Further, conventional techniques focus on management of the operation of hardware components. For example, a hardware component may be selectively activated or deactivated depending on the current power consumption-supply status or a selected power consumption strategy.
Of course, as less power is consumed, the battery discharges at a lower rate. Since the battery lifetime is dependent on its discharge, when the discharge rate is lowered, the lifetime can be prolonged.
However, such conventional power conservation techniques often sacrifice performance to gain longer battery lifetime. Another problem with the conventional techniques, including the power conservation techniques, is that the power sources are not efficiently or optimally utilized in many situations.
Accordingly, there is a need for methods and devices that can more efficiently utilize power sources such as batteries in electronic devices.